(Washington, DC) – The US Congress should adopt legislation to enhance targeted sanctions against Burmese military commanders who are implicated in serious human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to congressional leaders with 45 other nongovernmental and faith-based organizations.

The groups said it is “imperative” Congress address the human rights crisis in Burma. The United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and other rights groups have found that the atrocities against the Rohinyga amount to crimes against humanity. Important new measures to toughen targeted sanctions are pending with key congressional leaders. The legislation is needed to address the Burmese military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing against the ethnic Rohingya and the country’s sharply deteriorating human rights situation.

Join the Day of Action Campaign and tell your representative it’s the wrong time to accelerate U.S.-Sudan normalization

The United States is considering removing Sudan from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List as part of a path to a full normalization of relations with Sudan. However, moving at this time towards normalization ignores critical developments that affect core U.S. national security interests. This is the same regime that has conducted genocide against the people of Darfur, bombed and starved the populations in the Nuba Mountains, and denied millions of Sudanese citizens access to critical humanitarian aid. The regime has not fundamentally changed and continues to be led by the same leader President Omar al-Bashir who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity.

On April 24th activists are coming together for a Day of Action to demand their Members of Congress speak out against Sudan’s removal from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List. We’re providing resources and materials to help activists contact their representatives. To join the campaign and contact your Member of Congress on April 24th, please sign up here:

WASHINGTON, DC – 35 Alliance for Peacebuilding members and partners welcome H.R. 5273, the Global Fragility and Violence Reduction Act of 2018, introduced by Representatives Eliot Engel (D-NY), Ted Poe (R-TX), Mike McCaul (R-TX), Adam Smith (D-WA), Bill Keating (D-MA), and Paul Cook (R-CA) in the United States House of Representatives. This timely legislation would require the U.S. government – in collaboration with global civil society – to develop a 10-year strategy to bring down current levels of global violence and better address the root causes of violence, violent conflict, and fragility that drive recurrent global crises.

Violence containment costs the global economy $14.3 trillion each year – 13% of global GDP. This makes violence containment one of the largest industries in the world. Violence and violent conflict, rather than natural disasters, are now the primary driver of forced displacement and migration worldwide. Yet, according to Organization for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD) data, major global donors spend roughly 1% of total overseas development assistance on peacebuilding and conflict management and 8% on politics, justice, and security. This means we’re spending just 9% of international funds addressing violence and its causes, while 91% on development challenges often caused or exacerbated by violence.

It is high time for the United States to make violence reduction and prevention more central elements of its foreign policy and assistance. The Global Fragility and Violence Reduction Act of 2018 applies best practices from some of the U.S. government’s most effective and renowned foreign assistance programs – notably the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Feed the Future, and Water for the World – to provide the administration the guidance, authorities, funds and flexibility it needs to better tackle violence and conflict overseas.

Below is a list of organizations that endorse this legislation. We look forward to working with Congress and the Administration to move the effort forward.

Alliance for Peacebuilding

American Friends Service Committee

CARE

Carl Wilkens Fellowship

Center for Civilians in Conflict

Center on Conscience & War

Charity & Security Network

Chemonics

Church of the Brethren, Office of Public Witness

Conference of Major Superiors of Men

Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, US Provinces

A permanent ceasefire was signed on the 22nd of December between the military forces of South Sudan, led by President Salva Kiir, and the opposition forces led by former vice-president Riek Machar. A permanent ceasefire is a much needed first step towards ending the five-year conflict which began as a duel for power between Kiir and Machar. After a failed peace deal in 2015, the conflict evolved to include several more armed opposition groups. The ceasefire was negotiated in Addis Ababa, and brokered by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Eastern Africa, and includes multiple parties of the conflict. The factions also agreed to grant humanitarian access to areas most affected by conflict, providing hope that aid may be able to reach those who need it most and more information will be made available in these conflict areas.

Despite the high hopes placed on this ceasefire, which went into effect on December 24th, there have been reports of violence between South Sudanese armed forces and opposition groups in Unity state, near the town of Koch. Both sides claimed they were acting in self-defense, creating more confusion just as the ceasefire came into effect. NPR’s East Africa correspondent, Eyder Peralta reports that some on the opposition side view the violence as an attempt by the government to grab as much land as possible before peace talks begin in early 2018, which reflects the fear that the ceasefire may not represent the future that the international community was hoping for during the building of this initial agreement.

In advance of the United Nations Security Council’s December 12 meeting on the situation in
Myanmar, we, a global coalition of 148 human rights, faith-based and humanitarian organizations, urgently call on the Council to take immediate action to address the campaign of ethnic cleansing and mass atrocity crimes, including crimes against humanity, committed against the ethnic Rohingya population by Myanmar’s security forces in northern Rakhine State, as well as the continuing restrictions on humanitarian assistance throughout the state since October 2016.

Words of condemnation by the UN, including the Security Council’s Presidential Statement on
November 6 and the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee’s adoption of a resolution on
Myanmar, have not resulted in Myanmar’s government ending its abuses or holding those
responsible to account. It is time for prompt, concerted and effective international action.

Myanmar authorities are still heavily restricting access to northern Rakhine State for most
international humanitarian organizations, human rights monitors, and independent media. Most of Myanmar’s Rohingya population, estimated at more than one million, have been forced to flee to Bangladesh as refugees. Despite a bilateral agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh, there are insufficient guarantees that return at this time can be informed, safe and voluntary, that requirements for documentation of prior residence will not be used as a pretext to reject legitimate returns, that temporary holding centers will not become semi-permanent internment camps and that returnees will have the same rights of movement, access to livelihoods and health and education services as other residents of Rakhine State. The UN Fact-Finding Mission, which is tasked with preparing a report on abuses nationwide, has thus far been prevented from gaining access to the country.

Over 646,000 Rohingya have been made refugees since August 25, when Myanmar security forces launched “clearance operations” in response to armed attacks on security posts by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). Refugee testimonies provide overwhelming evidence of
Myanmar military-led atrocities during these operations, and a similar campaign that had begun in October 2016. The crimes against humanity perpetrated against the Rohingya include massacres and other unlawful killings, widespread rape and other sexual violence, looting, deportation and mass arson of hundreds of Rohingya villages. The violence also displaced tens of thousands of people from other ethnic minorities. Rohingya who remain in Myanmar continue to face severe food insecurity and threats in addition to systematic violations of their rights to a nationality, freedom of movement, and access to healthcare, education, and livelihood opportunities.

The Myanmar government has the primary responsibility to protect its diverse population without discrimination and regardless of ethnicity, religion or citizenship status. But, the civilian and military leadership of Myanmar, including the military’s Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, refuse to even acknowledge the serious human rights violations against the Rohingya and continue to deny any wrongdoing by state security forces in Rakhine State while ignoring decades of institutionalized discrimination against the Rohingya community.

We urge the Security Council to immediately impose an arms embargo against Myanmar’s military
that covers the direct and indirect supply, sale or transfer, including transit and transshipment of all weapons, munitions, and other military and security equipment, as well as the provision of training and other military and security assistance. The Security Council should also place targeted sanctions on senior officers responsible for crimes against humanity or other serious human rights violations. Financial sanctions should target senior officers who ordered criminal acts or are liable as a matter of command responsibility. The Security Council should explore all avenues for justice and accountability, including through international courts.

If the pledge to “never again” allow atrocities means anything, the Security Council cannot delay action any longer.

US: Strengthen Targeted Sanctions on Burma(Washington, DC) – The US Congress should adopt legislation to enhance targeted sanctions against Burmese military commanders who are implicated in serious human rights abuses,

Join the Sudan Day of Action on April 24th
Join the Day of Action Campaign and tell your representative it’s the wrong time to accelerate U.S.-Sudan normalization
The United States is considering removing Sudan from